Harmison's second-innings troubles

A fortnight ago the List compared performances of batsmen between the first and second innings of Test matches and one-day internationals. This week we look at which bowlers have the largest differences in averages between the first and second innings.

Steve Harmison retired prematurely from one-day cricket last year. His record was modest - 67 wickets from 46 matches with an average of 30.70 and an economy of around five an over - but he bowled significantly better while bowling first compared to when defending a target. He took 40 wickets from 21 games when England bowled first, at a strike-rate of 28, and only 27 second-innings wickets in 25 games at an average of 44. Although it's worth noting the statistical quirk where 14 out of the 21 games in which Harmison was bowling first were at home while 12 out of 13 matches in which he bowled second were overseas.

Sri Lanka's Farveez Maharoof is another bowler whose first-innings record is much better than the second. He's already taken 90 wickets in 72 ODIs and though his break-up is pretty even - 47 in the first innings and 43 in the second - his first-innings wickets have cost only 18 apiece while his second-innings average is 33.65.

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With the exception of Richard Snell and Mohammad Sami in the table below, 12 of the top 14 bowlers who performed better in the second innings are spinners or slow-medium bowlers like Paul Collingwood and Ian Harvey. Left-arm spinner Nicky Boje, who recently signed for Northamptonshire and the Indian Cricket league, was a better performer in both the second innings of Tests and ODIs. Boje took his only five-wicket haul and both his four-fors in ODIs while bowling second and averaged just over 28 for 55 wickets, compared to 45.51 for his 41 first-innings wickets. In Tests, Boje averaged a whopping 63 for 38 wickets in the first innings while his 62 second-innings scalps cost only 30 runs apiece.

Despite being a lower-order batsman, Snell also appeared in our batting list two weeks ago, although for averaging 24.11 with the bat in the first innings and 9.54 in the second, so you'd imagine he'd have little doubt about what he wanted his captain to do upon winning the toss.

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Unexpectedly, two spinners head our table of better first-innings averages compared to the second in Tests. Zimbabwean legspinner Paul Strang and Inshan Ali, the West Indian chinaman bowler, both had terrible records in the second innings and far better stats in the first innings. Ali's career came to an end in the late 1970s when the emphasis in West Indies shifted to all-out pace.

Colin Croft, an integral part of that pace battery, also shared the trend of being more successful in the first innings. Croft took 81 of his 125 career wickets at an average of just under 19 in the first, whilst in the second he was less potent with 44 wickets coming at 32 apiece, still respectable.

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Andy Caddick's contrast between his first and second innings figures was well-known during his Test career, and out of players with at least 200 career wickets, no one had a larger difference. He took 131 of those wickets in the first innings, including five five-fors, at an average of 37, but was far more effective the second time around with 103 wickets at an average of just under 21 with eight five-wicket hauls, including his final Test analysis of 7/94 in the win against Australia at Sydney in 2002-03.

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